Right, let's get this dealt with from the start; S.C.A.T is an awful name for a game — we won't go into why here, but it actually stands for Special Cybernetic Attack Team. Interestingly, the cart shipped in Europe as Action in New York. That's a much better title, although the game has as much to do with the Big Apple as mushy peas and chips.

Daft moniker aside, Natsume's side-scrolling shooter is a riot, but like most of the studio's output it comes with a wicked difficulty curve that demands unblinking attention to enemy and bullet movements. Ease your focus for just a second and you could be fast-tracked to the game over screen.

The plot sees Earth invaded by an alien force and it's up to the Attack Team to see them packing. It's pretty standard invasion fare that lacks narrative drive, but you'll be too engrossed in wasting wave after wave of incoming ships and other nasties to care. Plus, this game is an absolute riot in two-player mode, and the presence of a second person eases the challenge somewhat.

What makes this blaster stand out from the pack is that you're not in control of a ship, but a jetpack-toting soldier wielding a big cannon, and accompanied by two hovering attack drones. By tapping A you can swivel the drones in a 360-degree arc, enabling you to fire behind yourself, diagonally or up and down at the same time.

This is an example of incredibly smart design. Where most early shooters have you firing in straight lines, S.C.A.T gives you a tactical control mechanic that is genuinely put to good use. For example, a section of stage one sees your grunt gliding down the side of a mangled skyscraper, and set upon by foes and turrets from below and the rear.

Swivel the drones downward and you can turn to face the turrets at your back without worrying about the rising threats from beneath. Similarly, claustrophobic indoor sections are gruelling and really put your mastery of the drone swivel to good use – including a few sections with mortars on the ceiling and ground which require well-positioned diagonal fire to pass.

Without over-hyping the game, the drones are an inspired mechanic indeed, and are life-savers during its many epic boss battles. Natsume was skilled at creating epic end of stage showdowns, so you can expect to face off against a suite of giant tanks that spit ceaseless waves of fiery death, intimidating warships that have more guns than every Call of Duty combined, as well as fearsome laser arrays.

These fights are brutal at first – but like the bosses in many of the studio's titles they are easily defeated once you get their patterns down. We say 'easily,' but you will still die and be hurled back to the start of the stage many times before you topple each of these behemoths. In true Natsume fashion, death is punishing and once you complete a stage this game don't even have the decency to top up your health. It's a real lesson in pain.

But stick with it and you will experience a superb sense of satisfaction whenever you see a boss erupt in flames, or when you clear a tricky section that was causing you no end of grief. Stage four's bouncing lighting turrets are a particular source of frustration, and there's even a level mostly set around a giant battle cruiser that just refuses to die.

Luckily for you, there are various weapon types to be picked up from floating care packages. There's a straight shot bomb attack, horizontal lasers and a really neat wave attack that expands as it travels. The latter is superb for clearing broad groups of enemies or catching deviously-placed foes without having to use the drone swivel. Your attacks are chunky, as are the resulting explosions. Lovely stuff.

For a NES title we were pleasantly surprised to see so many bullets and enemies on screen at once. It seems that Natsume achieved this by toning down the detail and in some stages eliminating backdrop altogether, but it's still an impressive feat to have so much action going on without a hint of slowdown.

There are a few minor criticisms that come from the game's tech, however. Bullets and enemies will only occasionally flicker and disappear for a moment – if your tracking skills are good you will know to move out of the way regardless, but others might not be so lucky. It's natural you will feel cheated if you die because of this, and there are also moments where enemies scream onto the screen without warning, killing you instantly. It's a tad cheap.

Conclusion

These gripes aside there isn't too much we can say to criticise S.C.A.T – there's a sentence we never thought we'd write. The challenge is high, the stage design is clever, the bosses are real events and those swivel drones are a masterstroke. Chuck in some fast-paced action and energetic music and you have yourself a solid bullet hell shooter on a system that really shouldn't be capable of just so much action (in New York).

This is not a "bullet hell" shooter. It's a traditional scrolling shoot em up. There is a difference. Traditionally, back in the 8bit and 16bit era when shmups were really popular, most shooters weren't bullet hell games.

I actually like the more traditional shoot em ups but I don't like bullet hell type games that have really only become the norm in more recent generations and I wish the modern mostly indie developers creating these scrolling shooters would go back to making more traditional shoot em ups, like S.C.A.T.

@KeeperBvK I know the difference between bullet hell shooters to be honest - I have the likes of Mars Matrix on my Dreamcast, There are moments in S,C,A,T, that I would say fall under that banner - not the whole game of course but it seriously gets dizzying how many enemy projectiles are on screen at once.

About "Action in New York"...The odd thing is that Sigourney Weaver is apparently actually from New York, though perhaps as a small effort to hide the obvious influence on the second player character they listed her birthplace in the intro as Canada, I think. (I forget where player 1, not-Arnie, is from. New York?)

To those who disdain the title of this game: You guys do understand that "scat" has meant "go away!" recognizably longer than it has been a colloquialism for feces, right? Popularity of the fecal connotation is relatively recent in comparison to the one that indicates shooing, for the former is now "more well-known (apparently)" probably due to consistent defilement of terms, thanks to the Internet. Considering that there was no Internet in 1990 when this game came out, Natsume, the NA publisher, was obviously using the term in reference to "shooing away" bad guys (with firepower!!), rather than any reference to excrement. Perhaps still not the best name (it sounds kinda cheesy when its etymological connections are correctly understood), but it certainly doesn't deserve the constant misguided press it is often given for it. Though not entirely surprised with the community's collective assumption of "filthiness," I am pretty surprised that the author's apparent lack of knowledge of the term "scat" caused him to constantly reference the name of this game as a reference to feces, as this seems to be quite uncharacteristic of NintendoLife article writers, who typically use great foreknowledge in references. This is not a personal attack to the author or any member of the community (as the fecal definition for "scat" has apparently become far more popular than its former definition, so no one is truly to be blamed for ignorance of the word), but simply an annoyance with the ignorant common assumptions and dismissals of this game's name.

@Xilef Perhaps they're calling out from Scatland?Ah, it's good to see a Scatman reference. Nice. I don't think I've heard of this game before. I haven't played many side-scrolling shooters, so it looks interesting.

@Gauchorino hi, where I'm from the feces definition is the only one I've ever heard. There was no reason to stop and look after long history of the term because this is a fun retro review and a lighthearted joke. I think you're looking at it far too deeply. Did it honestly dilute the review for you?

@DaveCook No worries, no offense taken, nor any intended from me. I was just trying to point out that the American version's name refers a term which has meant (since the late 19th century, apparently) to shoo away (literally derived from the infinitive "to scatter") something, rather than any reference to feces. I have long understood this term to mean the former definition, and only in the past few years have I learned of the latter one. However, I think the former definition is exclusively an Americanism, which is probably why Natsume only gave it this title for an American audience and renamed it for their European audience (by the way, does the EU VC release use the same title as the American one?), as the term has obviously meant something different there than it has in America. I think that's where the confusion and laughter over the name derives from and its certainly really no one's fault for not recognizing a slightly (as in, probably the past 10 years or so) outdated (American) way of saying "Shoo!" However, I truly feel that this was the intent of the publisher in naming the game, as it is baffling to imagine why they would intentionally name after excrement (in fact, it may have been the case that the American usage of "scat" never meant "feces" at all until its more common connotation of such usage on the Internet, later on). I guess it's a similar thing to saying b*gger in the US (where it's a throwaway diminutive term in reference to a bothersome thing) rather than saying it in the UK (where...well, you know). So, I'm not trying to start fights or blame anyone, but just attempting to set the record straight of why the publisher would entitle this game as such for an American audience, as I guess this term is used completely differently in Europe. So, I apologize for sounding condescending or angry, as it wasn't my intention, and I should've remembered that NintendoLife is foundationally based in the UK, so it is not anyone's responsibility but Nintendo's for (potentially) releasing this game there under its (strange) American title. Also, I apologize for sounding harsh towards anyone, as I, myself, thought that "scat" universally meant "go away," rather than just in the US. And I did find your review quite entertaining and informative, please don't get me wrong. Thanks for your time.

Gauchorino lots of words have many different meanings. And people like to make jokes. Just so you know scat is not an Internet buzzword. There are people who actually study scatology. Don't know why someone would but pretty sure the Internet didn't invent science.

I got ya. Even so I just don't think it's that big a deal even if they intended the title to be toilet humor. Yes scat can mean 'shoo' and other things but it's funny when people play on words. Now I realize humor is subjective and you have your right to rant just as anyone else does.

@sweetiepiejonus Thanks and agreed. "Scat" generally isn't a point of contention in American vernacular, and that's why I'm pretty sure that Natsume Inc. intended the name of the game to be an "edgy" way of referring to blasting away bad guys rather than anything to do with toilet humor. This isn't to say that people can't or shouldn't reference bodily waste when citing the name of this game, but it just didn't sound like most people understood the obvious intention of the American version's name. Done with rant!